Added basic project introduction

doc/index.rst

@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ Contents:
 .. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 2
 
+   intro.rst
+
 Indices and tables
 ==================
 

doc/intro.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+==============
+ Introduction
+==============
+
+The ``#python`` IRC channel on Freenode has had a bot called infobob
+for a long time. Although it certainly served its purpose, there were
+a few implementation issues that made it unpleasant to work on.
+Additionally, some new software came along that we wanted to use in
+our new IRC bot.
+
+At its heart, infobarb is little more than an abstraction layer over
+IRC. Instead of receiving IRC protocol messages, infobarb components
+receive more abstracted events. These events are provided by
+Panglery_.
+
+.. _Panglery: https://github.com/habnabit/panglery
+
+Instances of infobarb are supposed to be persistent. This is
+accomplished using Axiom_, which uses SQLite_ internally. Each plugin
+instance gets its own Axiom store, and gets the same store back every
+time it is instantiated.
+
+.. _Axiom: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/Axiom
+.. _SQLite: http://www.sqlite.org
+
+The vast majority of behavior in infobarb instances is provided by
+individual plugins. These can be reloaded on the fly because of
+Exocet_, a novel module system for Python written by Allen Short.
+
+.. _Exocet: https://launchpad.net/exocet